To start with a quick overview of our present situation. Most of you
are familiar with this recent history; yet, it bears repeating. For 15
years now, since 2001, the US has been at war.
The
longest single battlefield has been the war in Afghanistan and in
neighboring Pakistan Tribal Areas. It has spanned two administrations.
The Taliban remains undefeated and is gaining ground and war lords
pursue their own political and military agendas.
The
2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, now almost universally
acknowledged to be one of the greatest military mistakes in recent
times, has virtually destroyed a country that had been created by the
imperial powers during WWI. Warfare between a Shia dominated Iraqi
government and the Sunnis—now mostly controlled by ISIS—has become a
struggle for territory and cities. This war has been internationalized.
The
Syrian civil war, which has become another international war, continues
its rising death toll and propels the greatest refugee crisis since
WWII.
The U.S., British and French air war on Gadhafi’s
Libya in 2011 has resulted in another failed state, ongoing civil war,
and more U.S. and allied bombing.
Insurgencies in
Yemen, Somalia, northern Nigeria, along with military attempts to
suppress them continue to cause huge numbers of civilian casualties and
further displacement. These conflicts have also been internationalized.
Since
2006, the Israeli siege of Gaza and the essentially one-sided warfare
against Hamas, culminating in the brutal assault of 2014, has caused
extraordinary suffering. The government-backed settler land grab in the
West Bank makes the prospects of a just peace between the Israelis and
the Palestinians more remote. In all these wars, civilians are the
primary victims.
As you know, the US is neck deep in
this descent into perpetual and proliferating warfare. Historian Andrew
Bacevich calls it America’s WWIV. Despite repeated military failures and
negative unanticipated consequences, the US still pursues the illusion
that it can shape the contemporary Middle East through a combination of
drone warfare, bombing, Special Operations and other covert actions. It
continues to invest heavily in the militaries of Israel, Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, Turkey and other U.S. allies.
American military
dominance (which must be distinguished from effectiveness) is the most
fundamental fact of today’s international order. The U.S., after all,
maintains a projection of global power with hundreds of thousands troops
stationed abroad” who occupy or use “some 761 ‘sites’ in 39
countries”—what critic Chalmers Johnson called “an empire of bases.”
Anyone
with eyes wide open must come to this topic with more questions than
answers—to say nothing about the burden of grief and even despair that
many of us carry. I continue to struggle with both the questions and the
difficult emotions.
For those of us hoping for a more
peaceful world and a more peaceful American foreign policy, the core
political question—what is to be done?—is perplexing. As long as
American soldiers are not dying in significant numbers, Americans, for
the most part, seem uninterested—and certainly uniformed—about US wars
and their consequences. The corporate controlled media are no help;
instead, they do everything possible to hinder understanding and serious
debate. Historical amnesia is a particularly American affliction. Each
of these obstacles are serious problems we need to confront.
My
topic, here, is the political rhetoric of the 2016 presidential
election. Even though it is a small part of the puzzle, the rhetoric of
the presidential candidates reveals a great deal about the historical
moment and the larger forces that shape this nation’s perpetual wars.
My
first contention is that there is an ideology of militarism that
dominates our political culture and it is being perpetuated by both the
Democratic and Republican nominees for president, despite their
significant differences.
We know or should know how
militarist ideology exploits our fears of terrorism, and perpetuates the
illusion that our safety depends on the worldwide projection and use of
military power.
We know or should know that this
ideology was developed and honed throughout the Cold War and after the
collapse of the Soviet Union, the national security establishment had to
find a new enemy to justify its continued rule.
We
know or should know that militarism is an ideology that denies its own
contributions to the continual escalation of violence in the Middle East
and to terrorist attacks in the West.
Note EU-Digest: What
is probably most amazing, reading the above report, is that the EU
member states don't need to be geniuses to figure out that something in
the equation related to their US servitude, when it comes to US foreign
and military policies, has not only been a complete failure, but also a
financial drain on their budgets. Europe, and specially the EU needs to
seriously start thinking about developing its own more independent
foreign policy and stop supporting US military adventures whereever they
may occur.
Read more: The Political Rhetoric of Perpetual War
